The American Electric Power plant in Rockport bellows smoke during the peak energy season in the month of July. Photo by John Dunham, Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro).

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A top federal air official on Wednesday defended pending rules that would require reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.

Janet McCabe, a former top air official in Indiana who heads the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation, told a House panel that the proposal meets the Clean Air Act's requirement for "adequately demonstrated technology" - meaning there is the technology now available to achieve the emissions reductions.

"There is adequate and robust data showing that the various components that we based that standard on are in use and ...